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Ryzen 2 benchmark leak points to AMD's fastest CPU yet

Intel had better pull its finger out with the next Core i chips

AMD'S NEXT RYZEN PROCESSORS could give Intel's Core i series another headache, as latest leaks show a top-tier second-gen Ryzen CPU hitting 4.35GHz.

On the South Korean forum, HWBattle, a user posted leaked benchmarks of what appears to be a second-generation Ryzen processor.

Simply listed as Ryzen 7 2000 Series in the SiSoft SANDRA benchmarking tool, the CPU boasts speeds running from 2.2GHz base clock speed boosting to 3.7GHz then with a turbo clock it hits 4.35GHz.

That's some pretty nippy clock speeds for what is likely to be a mainstream consumer chip. Judging by the speed and the eight cores on offer, it looks like the chip in question could be the follow-up to the Ryzen 7 1700X processor.

But previous leaks had put the Ryzen 7 2700X, as well call it for the time being, at a max clock speed of 4.2GHz. So there's a chance that we could be looking at an even faster chip here say the successors to the Ryzen 7 1800X, which is the current flagship of the Ryzen CPU family.

So, wherever this second-gen Ryzen CPU sits, it's not going to be a slouch. Yet clock speeds aren't the be all and end all; current Ryzen chips are pretty handy at carrying out workloads like video rendering that make good use of multi-core CPUs with many threads.

With the second-generation Ryzen chips we expect to see improvements in the processors Zen architecture to extract even more multi-thread performance to go alongside boosted clock speeds.

The next wave of Ryzen chips are set to make their debut next month, which should demystify the rumours and leaks.

It will also represent the second gauntlet thrown down at Intel's feet by AMD, as the current Ryzen chips present a viable alternative to the Intel's Core i series CPUs which largely went unchallenged for the past few years, particularly in the medium to higher tiers of the chip world. µ